WALLACE, NC (WWAY) – A Wallace couple will spend several years behind pars for filing fraudulent income tax returns.

Judge James C. Dever III also ordered Walda Luna, 46, and Perfecto Ruano, 57, to pay nearly $3,000,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. The Court also issued an order, forfeiting $1,789,520 seized by the Arkansas State Police during a traffic stop in May, 2014, and four properties owned by the defendants in Duplin County.

On June 20, 2016, Luna and Ruano pled guilty to conspiracy to file fraudulent income tax returns using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). The ITIN program enables aliens, who earn income in the United States, to file income tax returns and pay taxes. The wage and tax statements attached to these ITIN returns were bogus. The individuals never worked for those employers and never paid the taxes through withholdings claimed on the fraudulent returns. The couple used five post office boxes and four physical addresses in Duplin County to receive hundreds of fraudulent refund checks, seeking millions of dollars from the United States Treasury.

The judge sentenced Ruano to 57 months in prison followed by three-years of supervised release. Luna, who also pled guilty to filing a false individual income tax return in her name and aggravated identity theft for fraudulently claiming two individuals as dependents on her return to increase her refund, was sentenced to a total of 81-months.

Luna is not a United States citizen and is subject to deportation after serving her sentence.

]]>http://www.wwaytv3.com/2016/11/16/wallace-couple-sentenced-to-prison-for-fraudulent-tax-returns/feed/1396313DA wants to use testimony from a murdered witnesshttp://www.wwaytv3.com/2015/01/27/da-wants-to-use-testimony-from-murdered-witness/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2015/01/27/da-wants-to-use-testimony-from-murdered-witness/#respondWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000
The man accused of killing one man and then allegedly murdering a witness for that trial was in court again today.
Nashid Porter is charged with killing Brian Grant in 2012 and Obediah Hester in 2014.]]>PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY)– The man accused of killing one man and then allegedly murdering a witness for that trial was in court again today.

Nashid Porter is charged with killing Brian Grant in 2012 and Obediah Hester in 2014.

No cameras were allowed in the court room. While Nashid Porter was on pre-trial release for the alleged murder of Brian Grant in 2012, he was charged with the murder of Obediah Hester, a key witness in grant’s murder.

The state’s prosecutors explained to the judge that they want to use the testimony from interviews with Hester before he was killed for this trial.

A detective described what Hester told him in an interview on July 27th 2012, the day Grant was killed. The detective says Porter was staying with Hester in a house in Creekwood right across the street from where Grant was killed. Hester was set to be a witness for the trial, but on November 12th, 2014 he was murdered execution style in Duplin county.

A Duplin detective in that case says he interviewed two men that say they were hanging out with Porter and Hester that night. Those men say it ended when Porter began shooting Hester by an abandoned trailer on Wards road. An autopsy shows Hester was shot 11 times and ultimately died from a cinder block wound to the head.

The state says this evidence is important for Grant’s murder because both murders seem to have a personal motivation and were not robberies, both men died from gun shot wounds and Nashid Porter allegedly fled both scenes, and as far as they know Porter and Hester were friends. The state told the judge Porter was let out on a rare pre-trial release charged with first degree murder. The state also says this evidence shows malice and guilt.

The judge told the court that as long as all of this evidence comes out the way it did today, then it will probably be admissible in court. The judge also says they may have to argue some of the evidence in trial.
Trial is set for June 1st, 2015.

]]>http://www.wwaytv3.com/2015/01/27/da-wants-to-use-testimony-from-murdered-witness/feed/054500Wallace man charged with sex crimes against child he lived withhttp://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/05/22/wallace-man-charged-with-sex-crimes-against-child-he-lived-with/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/05/22/wallace-man-charged-with-sex-crimes-against-child-he-lived-with/#commentsWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000A Wallace man faces charges for sex crimes against a young boy who deputies say he lived with when the offenses happened. Pender County detectives say Carlos Martinez, 39, committed the crimes against the child, who is 4-years-old, on May 10, just a day before Mother's Day.]]>PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A Wallace man faces charges for sex crimes against a young boy who deputies say he lived with when the offenses happened.

Pender County detectives say Carlos Martinez, 39, committed the crimes against the child, who is 4-years-old, on May 10, just a day before Mother’s Day. They say Martinez was arrested on Monday after the child’s parents reported the crimes to the sheriff’s office on Mother’s Day.

Investigators say Martinez was living in the boy’s home when the incidents happened, as well as when they were reported by the parents. They say the child’s parents told deputies Martinez was a family friend.

Martinez is charged with indecent liberties with a child and first-degree sexual offense of a child. He is in the Pender County Jail under $135,000 secured bond. Deputies say Martinez already had his first appearance in court.

]]>http://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/05/22/wallace-man-charged-with-sex-crimes-against-child-he-lived-with/feed/451182UPDATE: 9-year-old dead after drive-by shooting; suspect in custodyhttp://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/05/28/update-9-year-old-dead-after-drive-shooting-suspect-custody/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/05/28/update-9-year-old-dead-after-drive-shooting-suspect-custody/#commentsWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000A nine-year-old boy is dead after a drive-by shooting in Wallace. Police arrested a Wallace resident on Sunday. Meshan Kentay Macmillian has been charged with first degree murder.]]>WALLACE, NC (WWAY) — A nine-year-old boy is dead after a drive-by shooting on Saturday afternoon. Meshan Kentay MacMillian is now in the custody of the Wallace Police Department. The Wallace resident was arrested Sunday afternoon with first degree murder of nine-year-old Leon Albe Halley III.

“Anytime somebody gets killed in a sensitive manner like that, especially a 9-year-old child, that’s much more tragic,” said Bobby Maready, Wallace Police Chief. “He had a whole life ahead of him, to get snuffed out this early for no reason at all, it’s totally stupid.”

MacMillian is also charged with discharging a weapon into a dwelling house from a moving vehicle, possession of a firearm by a felon and felony conspiracy. He is in the Duplin County jail with no bond.

Police say MacMillian is not the only suspect involved. They say they are still investigating and that this incident may be gang related.

Police were called to the 400 block of Satchell Street in Wallace just before 4 p.m. on Saturday to respond to the shooting death of the nine-year-old boy, Leon Albe Halley III, who died on the scene. The Halley’s were in Wallace on vacation from New York.

Family says he was playing video games in the living room of the house right before he was killed.

“The doorbell rang, he thought it was his cousin bringing back pizza so he got up to come towards the door, but I got to the door first,” said Latanya Halley, Leon’s Mother. “I heard a pop and when I turned around he collapsed.”

The family is distraught over the loss and say they will remember little Leon for the rest of their lives.

“He had a crazy laugh,” said Leon Halley Jr, Leon’s Father. “He loved sports, he loved helping his mother bake, just a typical 9-year-old kid just enjoying life and it was cut short.”

]]>http://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/05/28/update-9-year-old-dead-after-drive-shooting-suspect-custody/feed/5838505Flames in Duplin Countyhttp://www.wwaytv3.com/2010/11/01/flames_duplin_county/10/2010/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2010/11/01/flames_duplin_county/10/2010/#respondWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000WALLACE, NC (WWAY) — An industrial building in Wallace caught fire Sunday afternoon. The flames started on the second floor of the building, which used to be the Super 10. The Wallace Fire Department, Duplin County EMS and firefighters from surrounding counties put out the flames, but the commotion did back-up traffic on surrounding roads. No injuries have been confirmed.
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